South Africa 2010 was an essential learning curve for a footballing nation still evolving and finding its place in the global landscape.

While we returned home with the same amount of points we mustered four years ago, a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Germany cast a very dark shadow over a battling 10-man 1-1 draw against Ghana and a final game 2-1 victory over Serbia.

Now the dust has settled on our South African expedition there is a lot to ponder, dissect and learn from the experience in the Rainbow Nation. Can it be considered a good World Cup for Australia? What are the positives? And, most importantly of all, where do we go from here?

To supply the answers to these three issue, we've canvassed the opinion of Socceroo midfield star Tim Cahill, SBS' Les Murray, former Socceroos coach Rale Rasic, Melbourne Heart assistant coach and 1986 World Cup star Jesper Olsen and Socceroos' World Cup 2006 striker John Aloisi to review our campaign in South Africa.

Reading the context
Before we delve into the more specific issues behind the Socceroos' campaign, their achievements need to be given some context. This was only Australia's third final appearance and their first back-to-back tournaments. With only 32 nations represented in South Africa, just making it is not an achievement to underestimate.

A glance at how other powerhouses of world football performed is a sobering reminder that four points from one of
the final's strongest groups is a sterling effort, especially considering how 2006's finalists performed.

France were a disgrace, mustering just a point from a weak group and becoming entangled in acerbic infighting, while reigning world champions Italy were rooted to the bottom of their group, below minnows New Zealand. England went into the tournament as the bookie's third favourites behind Spain and Brazil, but won a solitary game, the same as the Socceroos.

There was a pre-tournament acknowledgment that the Socceroos had been handed a tough group and by the quarters there was only one group that had both of its survivors alive - Group D's Germany and Ghana. Indeed Ghana were the only group runners-up to make it past the Round of 16. Serbia were many people's dark horses for a run to the latter stages of the knock-out phases, but found themselves rooted to the bottom of our group.

We played over 100 minutes of our three tough group games with 10 men and our only full shift with 11 men on the pitch resulted in the victory over Serbia.

Glass half empty? Or half full?
While we didn't match the achievements of 2006 by reaching the knock-out stages, should we consider South Africa 2010 a good tournament for Australia?

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"Australia were fine," a clearly underwhelmed Les Murray tells us. "Except for a massive tactical botch in the Germany game by a coach who didn't believe in his players. After we got hammered 4-0, it was always uphill from there.

"You can't start a World Cup like that and survive," continues Murray. "I always felt this Australia team were good enough to make it into the second phase, but the difference between 2006 and 2010 is that we didn't have Guus Hiddink. He sent us out against Brazil in 2006 to attack and they did, resulting in us outplaying Brazil, but losing 2-0 through two goals that could have been prevented. Pim put up the while flag against Germany and sent out a team destined for defeat."

"It was a fantastic World Cup for Australia," a player from the frontline, Tim Cahill, tell FourFourTwo on his arrival home. "If you look at the results England and Argentina had against Germany, a lot of people are thinking that it wasn't such an embarrassment for us considering we had 10 men. We did fantastic against Ghana and the final performance against Serbia was massive. Overall the World Cup was a success and as players we felt we played well. We just would have loved to have 11 men on the pitch for all the games."

It wasn't just about a full house of players on the pitch either. Australia's two most influential, creative and experienced players at the highest level in South Africa - Cahill and Kewell - only played 170 minutes between them. And through a combination of injury and suspension, they didn't once feature on the pitch together.

"The Cahill send-off was harsh," adds Murray. "It wasn't a red, maybe a yellow instead. Kewell's sending off was even crueller as I don't think it was deliberate hand-ball. It was a penalty, but not a red."

"I have mixed feelings about how the Socceroos faired in South Africa," says Socceroos 1974 World Cup coach Rale Rasic. "It was the biggest stuff up in selection I've ever seen for the first match against Germany and tactically it was a comedy of errors. The second match we played we changed things and proved a point - we proved how wrong Verbeek was in selecting the tactics in the first match.

Rasic went on to say the Serbia victory underlined that famous Aussie spirit and a desire to go forward and attack. "The nature of our people is not to sit back for 90 minutes and pray for a draw," says Rasic. "[Our approach against] Germany was the biggest coaching blunder of the whole tournament."

"I thought Australia went really well in South Africa," says a more positive John Aloisi, who starred for the Socceroos in Germany four years ago. "In the first game we know Australia didn't perform as well as we can, but after our performances against Ghana and Serbia, I'd say we were unlucky not to go through.

"Against Ghana the sending off changed the game, but even with 10 men going into the last 20 minutes there was only going to be one team that was going to win it. In the final game, it was going to be a tough against the Serbians, but in the second half we took it to them and deserved the win.

"There are plenty of countries who have more experience than Australia who failed to make it through the group stages. If only we'd performed better in that first game we would have made it through," adds Aloisi.
Former Manchester United winger and Melbourne Heart assistant coach Jesper Olsen, who starred at the 1986 World Cup with Denmark, felt perhaps expectations for the Socceroos need to be tempered.

"We can call this a good World Cup for Australia as they qualified in the first place and only exited due to goal difference after getting four points. A lot of good will for Australia has been gained from this World Cup. You need to look at the bigger picture and say that Australia did a fantastic job.

"The expectations on Australia were so much higher this time, so it was a completely different atmosphere going into this tournament. The overall picture is that Australia came out of that World Cup with some credit after the performances in the last two games."

Taking the positives
"The positives?," says Rasic. "They had their own plane!".

"Very few," adds Murray. "The main thing to learn is to appoint a new Socceroos coach who understands the Australian mentality. Pim coached a bunch of players who had a fantastic attitude, but he never harnessed that. The next coach must be someone who believes in attacking football, as Australians like to attack."

It seems the biggest positive Australia can take comes from the biggest disappointment - that Germany game. Assuming the brace position and hoping for the best does not suit Australia. Let's hope that never happens again.

Due to a seeded team featuring in every World Cup group, Australia will always have a heavyweight to contend with every four years. Hopefully we have learned from the Germany debacle that such is the Australian mentality that
we must take the game to our rivals - regardless of their stature.

"The positives are we proved we shouldn't fear anyone and we should play to our strengths," says Aloisi. "When we did play an attacking game, we put teams under pressure and performed well. If we sit back and try and soak up the pressure, that's not the sort of country we are. We have to go and put pressure on other teams."

"This World Cup reinforced the idea of that Australian attitude, where we want to play, be attacking and have a lot of guts and heart," says Olsen. "Looking at those two last games lots of chances were created. There will be a change in the players ahead of the Asian Cup and there are some good players coming through."

"The positives are some of the kids who played [in South Africa]," says Cahill. "Plus the whole experience. It was the second World Cup for me and a lot of the lads and now we need to look forward to how we build Australian football."
On the player front, Murray feels no player damaged their reputation in South Africa, while one figure of Socceroo ridicule for so long emerged a star on the biggest of stages.

Cahill himself had been an advocate of Brett Holman for sometime, so it came as no surprise when the 25-year old blossomed in South Africa. "What Brett did at the World Cup is what he's been doing in training for years. Brett knows what I think of him and in the past people didn't understand his style of football. However, fair play to Brett he came though with the goods."

"Brett Holman and Carl Valeri should be regulars in the team now," adds Aloisi. "They both proved they can step-up and play at the international level."

Building for Brazil
The Brazil World Cup may feel a lifetime away, but considering the large turnover of players before then, there is much work to be done to ensure qualification - and then success - at the 2014 finals.

An obvious starting point is at the time of going to press, Australia were manager-less. After the shambles of Graham Arnold's interim appointment for the Asian Cup four years ago, it is clear that the FFA must appoint the next Socceroos coach sooner rather than later.

The coach need to be in place ahead of the Asian Cup and committed to the cause through to Brazil 2014. What legacy did Pim leave? He was always aware that he'd be leaving after South Africa, but the appointment of a new coach on a four-year deal will force them to nurture the next generation of talent in time for 2014.

"The team management was found wanting in South Africa," says Murray. "The coach didn't deliver. He was incapable of delivering as he wasn't the right coach. Pim was the right coach to grind out results to get us to South Africa, but he was not the right coach for the finals. He was appointed and left to his own devices. The whole football department has to be restructured so we have a grand vision of how to take this team forward."

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"Something went wrong with Pim Verbeek," agrees Rasic "Firstly the man should never have announced he was going to Morocco four months outside of taking Australia to the World Cup."

Rasic believes there is a need for a complete shift towards the next generation, with "the most brilliant player we've ever had" in Cahill reaching his mid-thirties by the time the next World Cup arrives.

"If I'm still playing at the highest level, then I'll be playing at Brazil 2014," says Cahill. "But there is loads of great young talent coming through like Dario Vidosic, Tommy Oar, Nikita Rukavytsya, James Holland and even Terry Antonis, players that aren't even in the squad yet that I think are going to be outstanding. We're lucky with the players coming through."

Rasic dampened the enthusiasm around the next generation by claiming Australia is lacking a future playmaker,
a player in the Nicky Carle mould who proves more popular with the national coach.

However, there is a general consensus that blooding youngsters is now a bigger priory than results in the coming months, even if that means sacrificing a podium place at Asian Cup.

"The majority of the current players will not play at 2014 and should not even be considered in the lead-up matches," says Murray. "Even in the Asian Cup we should be blooding the players for Brazil 2014. It is a four year cycle and it takes four years to prepare the players for a World Cup.

"We need to try out the younger tier who were in the squad for South Africa, or on the fringe of the squad. We need
a new goalkeeper, so Federici need to be considered now. Other youngsters like Spiranovic, Carney, Rukavytsya, and even young Tommy Oar, need to play straight away," adds Murray.

"The next step for Australia is to blood a few players at the Asian Cup," echoes Aloisi. "Those players who are not going to be around in fours years' time should not go to the Asian Cup. We have got four years to build a side that can compete at the next World Cup. We need to blood players at the Asian Cup rather than just try and win it."

Looking more long-term, Olsen says: "We still need to work towards improving the technical standard of Australian players."

The ride the 'Golden Generation' enjoyed is coming to an end. But with a new set of players and a fresh approach from a new coach, get ready to join the ups and downs the rollercoaster ride of a new era for the green and gold will provide. 

This article appeared in the August issue of FourFourTwo magazine. To buy back copies of this issue call 03-8317-8121 with a credit card to hand.